Abruptly, he walked out of his office and down the corridor. He paused outside Emily Clifton’s door, then knocked.
“Come in.”
Van slipped inside her office. “I have a favor to ask, if you’re not terribly busy.”
“I’m not that busy, not until tomorrow. After I turn in the revisions to the media plan for the Scandyan independence celebration, Ian will decide on all sorts of changes. Why? What is this favor?”
“A short guided tour of Valborg, especially the sights I should see.”
“Sean could—”
“But Sean doesn’t know as much as you do, and I’d really appreciate it if you’d guide me.”
A faint smile crossed Emily’s face. “I imagine Dr. Hannigan would not complain if you knew more about Valborg from the embassy’s perspective.” The smile broadened slightly. “And I would not mind a few hours away from the revised, revised, and rerevised media plan.”
“Are you sure?”
“Let me see if we can get a car and driver.”
Van stood and waited while Emily made the arrangements, and then the two of them walked out of her office and down the ramp to the main level.
A groundcar stood waiting outside the side staff door to the embassy. Emily walked ahead of Van and stopped by the open driver’s window. “Sonya…we’re going to give Commander Albert a tour, starting with the Government Square, and then the harbor, and the multi district.”
“Yes, ser,” replied the woman. “Up Knutt to Independence and into the square off that?”
“That would be fine.”
Van held the groundcar door for the third secretary.
“You don’t have to do that, Commander.”
“Old courtesies die hard,” he replied, shutting her door and walking around to the other side, where he slipped into the rear seat beside her.
“Valborg was built on a plantation scale,” Emily began, as the groundcar eased out of the gates and crossed the southbound lane of Knutt to turn north. “That’s why the main streets are all divided boulevards, and why, except in the newer sections southwest of the city, all the houses are relatively far apart, even the small ones. They had this illusion of equality, and that anyone could live anywhere, because the prices of the initial parcels were fixed, with the requirement that they not be subdivided. That’s why you’ll find small houses beside mansions in many places.” She laughed. “The fixed prices didn’t last, of course, but the size requirements did. Now this part of the city is one of the more exclusive ones.”
Van took in the dwellings on each side. Immediately to the north of the embassy was a private residence half the size of the embassy—enormous for a single-family dwelling—with a gated groundcar entry, and beyond that was a much smaller house, perhaps half the size of the one in which Van had grown up. Both dwellings were stone-walled, with blackish green slate roofs. They passed several more smaller houses, on either side of Knutt, also of stone and slate, before Sonya guided the groundcar onto a curving ramp that led into an even wider boulevard heading eastward, in what Van knew to be the general direction of the harbor and government center.
“We’re on Independence now,” Emily explained.
Van glanced from one side of the boulevard to the other. On both sides were white permastone walks. “I don’t see many people out.”
“You won’t, except on the enddays, and then you’ll see a lot more, mostly running and jogging. Things are so spread out—except in the true center of Valborg or the southwest—that it’s hard to get anywhere except by groundcar or guideway tram.”
“Doesn’t seem that efficient…”
“That wasn’t the goal of the original settlers—On your side, there, that’s the old Kleborg mansion. It’s a museum now, and it’s been kept in its original state, except restored, of course.”
Van looked, but behind the white stone walls could see only the upper stories of another sprawling stone-walled structure. “Everything’s stone…”
“It took a while to get trees here. Most of them are less than a century old, something about a native root worm…A lot of the older places are stone and synthwood.”
“Not many groundcars for these boulevards,” Van observed.
“Same problem…they built big and wide, and far apart. So, except in the morning or late afternoon, they look almost deserted.”
“That’s expensive…”
“The original settlers had the credits…brought in twice as much planoforming equipment as they needed. What they didn’t bring in was much military capability. That’s how the Argentis could take over so easily. On your left, across the median park there, that’s the original opera house. It’s still used today—only in the winter, and with the winters here, even you’ll be going.”
With his own background, Van would have gone anyway.
As they neared the gleaming buildings to the east, Emily continued to point out various landmarks. “…music conservatory…post-Argenti…botanical institute…Up ahead, on the hill overlooking the lower city and the harbor, that rectangle of buildings is Government Square…”
Sonya turned right, off Independence Boulevard and into the first crowded street or avenue that Van had seen. They drove up a gentle incline, past an area of greenery set in ascending terraces. The park was surrounded by low white stone walls, and held more than a few people either walking or seated on white stone benches.
“That’s the public garden, or rather the northern part. Beyond that is the square, and the Parliamentary Assembly Hall—the long, flat-walled building.”
The groundcar slowed almost to a crawl in the heavier traffic.
The Assembly Hall was the most unpretentious government building Van had ever seen—literally a long white stone box with rectangular windows at irregular intervals, with a set of wide and low stone steps in the middle, leading to a squared entryway. The Scandyan flag flew on a single staff above the entryway, but there were no domes, cupolas, minarets—nothing rising above the level roof of the building. People actually walked across the square, and several groups were standing on the steps.
“The Liberal Commons party controlled the government when it was built, and they felt
